Senegal: production of the first offshore oil project has started

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Production has started on Senegal's first offshore oil project, Australian group Woodside Energy announced on Tuesday, as the country's new government seeks to increase profits from natural resources.

“This is a historic day for Senegal and for Woodside,” the company’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill , said in a statement.

The ship extracting the oil is moored about 100 km offshore from the Sangomar oil fields . The project aims to produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day , according to the press release.

The discovery of oil and gas off the coast of Senegal in 2014 raised hopes that the industry could generate billions of dollars in revenue for the developing country and transform its economy. But the new government, which came to power at the start of the year, has pledged to review oil and gas contracts with foreign companies, which it described as unfavorable to Senegal .

“The exploitation of our natural resources, which, according to the Constitution, belong to the people, will be the subject of particular attention on the part of my government ,” declared President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in his first speech to the nation in April. “I will carry out the disclosure of the beneficial ownership of extractive companies (and) an audit of the mining, oil and gas sector” .

At a rally in Dakar on Sunday, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko reaffirmed his administration's commitment to reviewing contracts and promised that the country's share would be guaranteed. “We will face the multinationals ,” he declared.

Woodside Energy has an 82% stake in the project and state energy company Petrosen owns the remainder. Although Senegal's fossil fuel production is not expected to be as large as that of major producers like Nigeria , Petrosen expects the sector to generate more than $1 billion per year over the next three decades.

“The first production of the Sangomar field marks a new era not only for the industry and economy of our country, but above all for our people ,” Thierno Ly, general director of Petrosen, said in the press release.

The country also has a liquefied natural gas project on the border with Mauritania , with extraction expected to begin at the end of this year.

The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project , involving British energy giant BP, American company Kosmos Energy, Mauritanian oil and gas company SHM and Petrosen, aims to produce around 2.5 million tonnes of LNG per year .